The Eurovision Song Contest

Something very important to remember as you read my commentaries - they are written 'live' as the contest progresses (or in the case of the Junior, during my first watching of the recording, after swearing my friend to say nothing until after I'd seen it!).
When I pick songs I like and put some songs down, this is not do with foreknowledge or written after the event. Everything you read here is as live as the contest itself (give or take some indented comments, and a few minor corrections - email me if you spot anything I've screwed up!).

You may notice assistance provided by Ewen and Moray. I am grateful to both, and I welcome your thoughts on the contest. So why not write to me?

A small plea... For the Eurovision song contest 2006, a website was set up: www.eurovisionathens.net This website contained all sorts of "backstage" photos such as the various rehearsals. It is where I got the original of the picture on the right (the one you see here has been edited). Because of my restricted internet access, I was only able to download a few of the pictures from a friend's dial-up account, and this website appears to have finished.   If you should happen to have downloaded all of those pictures, would you be willing to zip them up (or tarball them) and make arrangements to send them to me, please, as I would like to have an idea of the 'behind-the-scenes' stuff that goes on. My email is somewhat limited in its capacity and handling of attachments, so the best method could be one of those file transfer sites... unless you have your own website in which case hiding it on your website (i.e. /forrick.tar.gz) may be the simplest for you? Please do get in touch - heyrick at merseymail dot com.   Please also get in touch if a similar thing happened for this year's contest. Thank you very much.

The Eurovision Song Contest 2008 (from Belgrade / БЕОГРАД, Serbia)

• All the commentary and scores card for 2008...
  Also including the 2008 UK National Selection, and picture-laden reviews of both semi-finals and the grand final.

The Eurovision Song Contest 2007 (from Helsinki/Helsingfors, Finland)

• All the commentary and scores card for 2007...
  Also including the 2007 UK National Selection, reference links, and a crash-course on Finland.

• All about Eurovision songs: Types of song in the contest, and about the contest...
  Dissecting the sane and the wacky, plus an introduction for those viewing outside of Europe.

The Eurovision Dance Contest 2007 (from London, UK)

• All the commentary and results for the dance contest...
  This is "Eurovision does 'Strictly Come Dancing'", and is the very first European dance contest ever held.

The Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2007

• Direct to the details and review of the 2007 Junior Contest held in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

The Eurovision Song Contest 2006 (from Athens / ΑΘΗΝΑ, Greece)

• All the commentary and scores card for 2006...
  (semi-final, grand final, and comments...)

The Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2006 (from Bucharest, Romania)

• Direct to the details and review of the 2006 junior contest held in Bucharest ('Bucuresti'), Romania.

The Eurovision Song Contest 2005 (from Kiev / KYÏV, The Ukraine)

• All the commentary and scores card for 2005...
  (semi-final, grand final, and junior contest)

The Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2005 (from Belgium)

• Direct to the details and review of the 2005 junior contest held in Belgium.

The Eurovision Song Contest 2004 (from Istanbul, Turkey)

• Here is the stuff I wrote back in 2004...
  My first on-line review, but certainly not my first Eurovision!

Some Eurovision songs I liked...

• Some of my favourites... (and a sort of mini-FAQ)

Facts and figures...

• Some random facts and figures... (from 2006)

The Rules from 1997 (!)

• The official contest rules from 1997...
  While these rules are out of date (so don't quote them!), they are useful in highlighting some of the preparations and behind-the-scenes goings on in the contest - the sort of things that we casual viewers do not get to see.

Score card data files (for 2005-2008) and software

• EuroScore
  Data layout and format, tables for 2005 to 2008, plus the EuroScore software v0.05 2008/06/05.

The official website

Or, for the young'uns, go to:

In either case, the website appears to be a horrible mess of JavaScript. Let's hope somebody less obsessed with scripting is contracted for the Eurovision 2006 website. Hell, I will help do it, if somebody arranges transport for me!